Well Gals I am the one who requested the new forum and i will happily own up to it. The guys on this site have been great and have given me a lot of good advice but i also realized that the sport of duck hunting is a male dominated one and not to mention all of the duck hunting widows that may be out there. I wanted a place where we could meet and swap stories or in my case learn how a woman can break into this sport. have fun!!!!

Hey southernbuster, I am very new to the chat, I Love duck hunting!!!! I do not have any really exciting stories to tell about hunting-YET! I have just started hunting in the past couple of years, but I have to tell you its in my blood. My favorite hunting is duck and goose, I usually have to drag everyone else's butts out of bed! My husband and I were married once before- to each other. We divorced and then got back together and married again last Aug. We have two boys ages 6 and 3. Hunting has become something we not only do together, but it is something we can go out and do as a family, it is our passion. My husband and his friends have made hunting with them very easy, they offer advise and help whenever needed. Should we go without a bird in a day, it was still nice to get out with some good friends. Anyway, I see that your signiture said love the girl, love her chessie. I to have a chessie. Actually two, a five year old we rescued from Bismark, and a six month old. I LOVE THE CHESSIE'S. The five year old is actually my husbands and the six month old is mine. I have never had a more behaved puppy in my life. To make a long story short, I would love to hear more about your chessie, and would very much appreciate any tips you can give about training for the upcomming duck season! Thanks

hey lady duck!!well about my chessie!! check out the story in the hunting dog forum about the three legged chessie. he's mine. we got him when he was about 6 months old. he has been a great dog. he is our first chessie, so i am afraid that we kind of ruined him sometimes by not training him well enough and not having him socialized enough. i am sure you are familiar with the chessie nature of protecting their family. anyway he is a great dog. a lot of amaizing natural talents. i have never seen a dog with such a soft bite. when he was about 8 month old i took him to an irrigation pond to swim and their was a duck there i wanted to see what he would do so i told him to go and get it. he treated it like a wound (turned out it was domestic:}lol) any way he followed it evertime it dove and wore the thing completley out stepped on it etc. the when it played dead he brought it back. and you know after about 45min of working the duck cicnt have a scratch on it !!! not even a feather missing!! it was alive and ran away later on.
there have been other times when he has been out running in a feild and brought back a pinky baby rat. still alive not a scratch!!! they are amazing animals and very free thinkwer.
my best advice is start them early. work with them everyday and talk to the guys on the huntig dog forum they really know their stuff!!!

Thanks for the advice southernBuster, We just recently had a major incident at our home. On Sunday our five year old chessie bit our 3 year old son in the face, he is fine had a puncture on his cheek and some scratches around his jaw. We took him to the ER and they steristripped the puncture closed and put him on antibiotics for a week. Roxie is very human food aggressive, and our son was picking up some food wrappers and she snapped at him. Needless to say we returned her to the shelter we got her from today. It was a very hard time for me, being a mother, I was upset at Roxie. Being a dog lover I cried my eyes out, we have made her part of our family for the last 4 months. My husband knows that it was the best for everyone, but is very upset, as is the rest of the family, including our six month old chessie. The risk of having her around was just to great. Anyone who could offer some advice on helping the family cope, including the pup, it would be greatly appreciated.

Lady, that's so awful! I am so sorry for you and your family (and the poor puppy who doesn't know where their "friend" went). I went through a somewhat similar situation as a child when a shelter pet we adopted was unsuitable to live with a family and had to be taken back, and I know it was very hard on everyone involved. The best advice I can give you is that time is the best healer. It will take time, but everyone will adjust, even though it's one of the hardest things in the world to give up a pet. I am so sorry about what happened to your son, but I am glad to hear that he is going to be okay. Please keep us updated!

hey lady. yeah that reall sucks. unfortunatley for the breed chessies who have been given up also havent been socialized very well and dont make good pets anyway . when we first got our chessie he was older and we wanted to teach him about his place in the family. one of the first things we did was to give him a toy or bone and then watching very closley have my then 2yr old go and take it away from him while he was playing with it. if he so much as curled a lip we were right on him telling him no. after a few times of this he learned that although she was smaller in the family scheme my daughter was the bigger dog. my son is now 1 1/2 and the dog like my sons ball we are having to do the same thign all over again. luckily my dog has never bit anything very hard and although he nipped at my son once when i wasnt looking he wasnt hurt thank God!!! .
my best advice for you new pup it too make sure he didnt learn anybad habits. let him know his place in the family and that he is part of the family take him out often and let him be with you it is the most important thing to a chessie and he will do fine soon enough.